A new rumor claims that Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, who is slated to direct the upcoming New Jedi Order Star Wars film with Daisy Ridley reprising her role as Rey, is attempting to leverage agenda-driven talking points to coerce Disney into keeping the film’s budget intact.
LONDON, ENGLAND – APRIL 07: (L-R) Daisy Ridley, Kathleen Kennedy and Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy attend the studio panel at Star Wars Celebration 2023 attends the studio panel at Star Wars Celebration 2023 in London at ExCel on April 07, 2023 in London, England. (Photo by Jeff Spicer/Jeff Spicer/Getty Images for Disney)
This latest rumor comes from scooper WDW Pro in a recent video upload.
He detailed, “It looks like according to this source that Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy is being very public and positioning this as, ‘She is a woman of color, it’s time for her to be in charge.’ That she’s being so forthright in this kind of DEI language in order to protect the film from being cut even more drastically.”
WDW Pro continued, “And what is being alleged is that The Walt Disney Company — although I cannot prove this independently — that The Walt Disney Company, many of the higher ups are extremely squeamish. And squeamish is the word that was sent my way in regards to the viability of this film. They’re quire nervous.”
LONDON, ENGLAND – APRIL 07: Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy onstage during the studio panel at Star Wars Celebration 2023 attends the studio panel at Star Wars Celebration 2023 in London at ExCel on April 07, 2023 in London, England. (Photo by Kate Green/Getty Images for Disney)
This rumor comes after Obaid-Chinoy shared a New Year’s Eve message with CNN saying, “I am very thrilled about the project because I think what we are about to create is something very special. And we are in 2024 now and I think it’s about time we had a woman come forward to shape the story in a galaxy far, far away.”
She also informed Vice News back in May, “My name is Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy and I’m directing the next Star Wars film. I’m excited about bringing Daisy Ridley back into the Star Wars galaxy, and in telling her story, I am excited to be immersed in the Jedi Academy, and I think there is so much excitement around the new Jedi order.”
She continued, “I’ve always kicked open doors that were previously closed, and I think my feeling is that there is a critical mass of women who have begun to move forward in places that were previously closed to them.”
@vicenews Pakistan-born Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy will be the first woman and person of colour to direct one of three new Star Wars films. She’s Muslim, brown, an Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker and this is her first major Hollywood feature. #StarWars #womenoftiktok #Pakistan #southasian #director #movie #film #msmarvel #daisyridley #jedi ♬ original sound – VICE News
Not only does this rumor follow Obaid-Chinoy’s comments, but it comes in the wake of a previous rumor from WDW Pro back in December where he detailed that Disney executives were terrified of another failure like The Marvels.
In the wake of a listing on the Film & Television Industry Alliance’s website that the Rey film would go into production in the United Kingdom on April 7, 2024, WDW Pro detailed that “[Kathleen Kennedy] is allegedly in a very big hurry to get this movie into full-on production that includes trying to reserve locations very fast out of the strike as well as getting everything tucked away and done and put into place. They want to move fast.”
He added, “Still, I am told not to expect this film out until at the very earliest late 2025, but almost assuredly 2026. That means that even when this comes out it will still have been basically a decade since Disney made money with Star Wars.”
On top of noting that Kennedy and Lucasfilm wanted to get the film into production as soon as possible, he also shared information from one of his insiders, “Disney executives are very worried about this because of The Marvels. And here’s where that worry comes from: The Marvels is unlikely to break $100 million at the domestic box office. It is an unbelievable flop. It’s just unbelievable.”
He continued, “Now, what did the audience say about Captain Marvel for years? They said, ‘We didn’t want to go see Captain Marvel. We went because you told us we had to, to see what was going to happen in our favorite movies.’ And then because it was not a good movie, now we dislike this character,” he continued. “And then the audience celebrated when Captain Marvel was not in other movies very much. And then when Disney said, ‘No, no, she’s popular. Here’s the movie go see it. Here’s the sequel.’ Fans reacted poorly.”
Brie Larson as Captain Marvel/Carol Danvers in Marvel Studios’ THE MARVELS. Photo by Laura Radford. © 2023 MARVEL.
“Rey is magnitudes higher than that,” WDW Pro asserted. “Because the way that Rey works is that when The Force Awakens came out, fans were told, ‘You’ve got to see this to see all your original characters that you love.’ And that didn’t happen. And then they were told, ‘You’ve got to go see The Last Jedi because you’ve got to see actual Master Luke training Rey.’ And that didn’t happen. And then they were told, ‘You’ve got to go see The Rise of Palpatine because you’ve got to see how this actually plays out. We’ve got a super secret plan to make this all be worthwhile, like we’re going to redeem all those characters.’ And then that didn’t happen. That’s three big movies that people were forced to go see where their favorite heroes were desecrated and where Rey was elevated.”
“And I think the Disney executives know this could actually be worse than The Marvels,” he added.
As for the budget of the film WDW Pro detailed his source informed him that Lucasfilm wanted $225 million for the budget while Disney wants $170 million.
Daisy Ridley as Rey in The Last Jedi (2017), Lucasfilm
The Marvels only grossed $84.4 million at the domestic box office and another $115.4 million internationally for a global box office haul of $199.9 million.
The film has a reported $274.8 million production budget, but that number is likely to go up once Marvel Studios submits their financial paperwork for 2023 that likely included significant reshoots for the film.
Even without factoring in the likely increased budget, the film needed to make at least $687 million just to break even. It clearly did not and lost Marvel Studios and The Walt Disney Company a significant chunk of change.
Brie Larson as Captain Marvel/Carol Danvers in Marvel Studios’ THE MARVELS. Photo courtesy of Marvel Studios. © 2023 MARVEL.
As far as the idea of Obaid-Chinoy publicly using identity politics to protect the film’s budget, it’s not out of the realm of possibility. The Walt Disney Company has repeatedly used identity politics to shield itself from public criticism, it’s not unheard of that they might also attempt to use it internally to shield their pet projects.
What do you make of this latest rumor regarding Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy and her Star Wars film?
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